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"In selecting the town of Boston, as the place, within which the Monument should be erected, the Trustees have been actuated by no local, or narrow, views of policy, or interest; but by considerations very obvious and appropriate. As the capital of the Commonwealth, as the place, where the citizens of every part of it, most frequently, assemble, and as the chief resort of strangers Boston had general claims, to this distinction, of a nature strong and commanding. But it has others much more peculiar and impressive. In this town, that struggle for Independence commenced, which drew Washington from his retirement, into the great career of his glories. In its neighbourhood, and for its immediate relief, he unsheathed his sword. This was the scene of his first command and of his earliest triumph. Indeed, so deeply do the citizens of this metropolis realize the many peculiar claims, the memory of this father of his country has upon their affections, that the plan, now proposed, in its first conception, comprehended, only, the inhabitants of Boston. But at the solicitation of others, and to the end, by lessening the subscription of the individual, the fund might be enlarged; and in order, also, that their fellow-citizens, generally, should not be precluded from the honour and gratification of aiding in the erection of a Monument to a common father, a more enlarged scope has been given to the design; and all the inhabitants of the Commonwealth are invited to join in a tribute, worthy of the people of Massachusetts and of WASHINGTON.

John Brooks, President

Benjamin Russell, Secretary

June 4, 1811"